Christ Blessing

Christ Blessing, also at San Giovanni in Bragora in Venice, shows the traditional devotional image of Christ in the act of blessing—the raised right hand forming the gesture of benediction, the left hand holding the Book of the Gospels. Alvise Vivarini's painting for this Venetian parish church belongs to the long tradition of images of the blessing Christ that served both devotional and liturgical functions in the church interior. The survival of this work in its original location allows it to be understood within the spatial and spiritual context it was created to serve.

The blessing Christ is shown in a half-length format, frontal, his gesture of benediction clear and legible from a distance. Alvise renders the Gospel book with material specificity—its binding and pages described with the same attention he gives to the figure's drapery—while the face combines idealized perfection with the soft Bellini-influenced flesh modeling of his mature technique.